Talitha Cumi - when suffering meets mercy

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Have you ever feared for one of your loved one’s life and health? 

I remember when I learned that my grandfather’s cancer had returned.  I was in college at the time and I was so angry with God.  My grandmother had already outlived two husbands, and now her third husband had been told he had six months to live!  Weikko, my grandfather, was such an incredible man.  I had never seen my grandma so happy as she was with him.  And to have battled cancer, survived and then to find that the cancer had returned … it all seemed so unfair.  God and I had a conversation that night; the kind of conversation where I start doing all the talking and which slowly turns into a time of holy awe and confession, “God, I spoke out of turn.  You are my hope.  You are my salvation.  I have no one else to turn to.  There is nowhere else to go.  All I can do is trust you.” 

Our scripture readings this Sunday confronted us with the problem of suffering.  This is an uncomfortable topic for us.  We often see suffering as pointless, meaningless, and altogether evil.  There is an idea among Christians that when bad things happen, the devil causes them, and when good things happen, God is blessing us.  But these readings show us the God is in the middle of the bad things that happen in our lives.  Lamentation bluntly points out that grief and affliction are God’s punishment upon our sin and the sins of the world. 

I don’t like that. 

Yet, even as we saw God’s justice and discipline, we also saw God’s mercy in Christ as Jesus comforted a fearful father, healed a long-suffering woman, and raised a daughter from the dead. 

I want to be careful and clear here.  Suffering, sickness, disease, injustice, and all sorts of afflictions are consequences for sin.  “The wages of sin is death.”  Those miseries that lead up to death are like a down payment.  But suffering is often the occasion that God uses to display His love and mercy.  God uses these awful experiences as a blessing to strip away all the things that distract us from Him, to help us to trust Him all the more deeply, and to show us how great His love and faithfulness are. 

Stop and consider:  How did God most powerfully display his love for us?  Was it not through the brutal suffering and death of His own beloved Son?  Did not Jesus pray, “Let this cup pass from me; yet not my will, but yours, be done!”?  If God brought about our eternal salvation through suffering and death, can He not build faith, bring deliverance, and give life through our suffering? 

“But I don’t want to suffer!” I say.  But, O, the compassion I have experienced and the mercy I’ve learned through the hard times of life! 

Seeing the suffering of others gives us the opportunity to share God’s love.  There is a saying, “People won’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”  It is good and right for us to care for the physical needs of others, to take meals to the sick, to feed the hungry, to petition government and start church initiatives to provide health care for those who cannot afford it.  These all show God’s love.  However, we must never forget that these are but symptoms.  The disease is sin.  We have the cure for this disease – the blood of Jesus which cleanses us from all unrighteousness.  We want to both show compassion to the suffering and share the salvation of the Cross of Christ. 

Yours in Christ,

Pastor T

Questions to Ponder

-          Look back at Mark 5:21-43.  Can you sympathize with Jairus?  How have you feared for a loved one?  Did you “come to Jesus” and “fall at his feet”?  What was the result?  Did you experience that Jesus went with you?  If so, how?

-          Have you, or has someone you know, dealt with a chronic illness?  The woman Jesus healed had suffered from a gynecological illness for twelve years, and “had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.”  How do such illnesses impact one’s hope, joy, and faith?  Where do you turn when all your earthly resources run out?  Is it valid to go to doctors and use earthly resources while trusting in God for healing?  Why or why not?

-          How did Jesus respond after the woman touched Him and was healed?  Why do you think it mattered to Him who had touched him?  How is the woman’s response helpful for us? 

-          When the messengers told Jairus that his daughter was dead, how do you think that impacted his hope?  How did Jesus respond?  When does believing God’s promises in the face of cold hard facts seem foolish to people?  How does Jesus response challenge and comfort you?